Salvador Perez Signs Four-Year Extension

The worst kept secret in baseball is no longer a secret. Salvy is staying.

For all the turnover with the Royals over the last few years as we’ve said goodbye to the 2015 World Series champs, one of the constants has been Salvador Perez and he will continue to be that through at least the 2025 season. He signed a four year deal with $82 million guaranteed that can jump to $93.5 million if a fifth year option is exercised. You ready to break this thing down? 

Let’s start with simple fact that Perez is one of their best players. He led the team in fWAR at 1.9 in a short 2020 season that was even shorter for him. Keeping him around, on the surface, is 100 percent the right move. He loves the Royals and the city and the Royals and the city love him. Okay, we got that out of the way.

Is it smart? 

My initial reaction to the deal is that the money is a little high for a catcher entering his age-31 season with so many innings on his knees. His $20.5 million AAV is the second highest in baseball behind JT Realmuto, who is without question the best catcher in the league. The $82 million is the third most in baseball behind Buster Posey and Realmuto. Last season, 22 catchers had at least 120 plate appearances (that’s four a game for half the season). Among those, Perez had the highest fWAR, the highest average, slugging percentage, ISO and was tied for the most home runs. 

He also rated better defensively than we’ve seen in quite some time. Framing, which shouldn’t be a thing but absolutely is, has been a big issue with Perez for awhile. But in 2020, he was fine. He wasn’t great, but according to Fangraphs, he was ever so slightly above average. According to Baseball Prospectus, the results were the same. I’ve been a believer that his defense before his injury was pretty overrated, but the numbers (and the eye test to some extent) looked much better for him in 2020. 

So the question then becomes how close he is to the player he was in 2020. I looked at the offensive numbers a few weeks ago and I have a hard time thinking he will be able to repeat that, but there’s a lot to say that he can still provide positives on offense moving forward. He hits the ball hard and that likely isn’t going to change, at least for the next couple years. His change in stance, I think, is something that can help him continue to see the ball well and hit the ball hard, so I like that aspect. 

You also may have heard that Perez doesn’t really do a good job of laying off bad pitches. Oh you didn’t realize that? Well then I think you might be at the wrong place! He’s mentioned this spring that he’s working on that, but he’s also said that he might not be able to keep that up in game action in the regular season, so I guess we’ll see about that. I think it’s fair to say he’s going to swing and swing a lot for the length of this deal. 

The defensive part is a bit more of a question. His throwing has always been a strength, but he was pretty average last season. Was that because of the elbow surgery and it’ll bounce back? Or maybe it won’t? It’s hard to say. I’ve been critical of his blocking over the past few seasons as I think he can get a little lazy on balls in the dirt, but he didn’t have a single passed ball in the short 2020, so that’s definitely a good sign. 

It’s also worth wondering how much of 2020 was Perez being well rested after missing all of 2019 and only playing a portion of a season that was already a portion. He should still be benefiting during the 2021 season, which is great, but the extension doesn’t even start until after a season in which I assume we’ll see a typical workload for Perez. 

This was always going to be a tough call for the Royals. Catchers don’t tend to age great but it could be worse. Since 1901, of the 105 catchers with at least 1000 plate appearances in their age-32 to 35 seasons, 40 of them were average or better based on wRC+. Only 19 posted an fWAR of at least 10.0 in those seasons, though. Longevity is definitely a question. 

But at the same time, when a player as iconic as Perez wants to stay in a city like Kansas City, a front office like the one the Royals have is going to have a hard time not making that happen. Additionally, the Royals do have some catching depth in the prospect ranks with Sebastian Rivero and MJ Melendez, among others, but the fact that Melendez hasn’t really progressed has taken away the starter potential unless Rivero’s offensive gains are very real.

On the whole, the money, to me, is too much. I don’t think you can count on 2020 happening again for him. The four years is honestly too much for me too, given that paying a 35-year old catcher $22 million who might not actually hit enough to DH isn’t a great idea for a lower revenue team. I probably would have been okay with something like three years and $54 million, which isn’t hugely different than this deal, but it is different. 

In the big picture, though, he isn’t blocking anyone and he is still playing at a high level. They have additional television revenue and should have an inexpensive core of pitchers coming through over the next few years. 

As long as this deal doesn’t stop them from doing anything else they need, I can both like that they signed the player without liking the deal. It shows me that John Sherman and this ownership group are willing to shell out some money, which they’re going to need to do if some of these pitchers and guys like Bobby Witt, Jr. (and others) pan out the way they hope. 

For now, a franchise icon is staying in Kansas City for at least a few more years. He figures to at least be one of the team’s best power bats for the next couple seasons and can continue to be behind the plate for the team’s cavalry of young pitchers working their way through the minor league systems to the big leagues. All that’s left now is to figure out how they’re going to add his #13 (and Gordon’s #4) to the team Hall of Fame building when his career is said and done.